


Caged Tiger

by Shantae



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi | Fire Emblem: Binding Blade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 08:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8791309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shantae/pseuds/Shantae
Summary: The arena was like a home to him.
(theme: arena)





	

**Author's Note:**

> im on a ROLL
> 
> pbbtbbtbt who wants to bet the fe100 challenge is just gonna be a ton of drabbles

He heard the familiar sound of sand grinding under his boots as he entered the arena. It was a different one from the arena where he had fought in his younger years, but the basics were the same. A yelling crowd, the merciless sun, an air of fear and tension hanging around him like a curse. Death looming over him like giant monster ready to beat him to a pulp.

 

To any other, it would've been intimidating. Scary, even. To Dieck, it was soothing. It felt like home.

 

The rules were still the same, too. Weapons were provided by the arena (he had thanked Elimine for blessing him with a steel sword instead of a flimsy iron one), opponents were matched equally, both parties would put in the same sum of money and whoever won would receive it all. The loser died by the hands of the winner. It was simple. Except this time he would be putting his life on line for an army, not for a royal family. But every time he had entered the arena, it was to ensure his survival, whether it be to make money for himself, for the army or to entertain a rich family.

 

The sword felt clumsy in his hands, he had been trained to carry much heavier blades, and he briefly wondered how many others had hold this sword and died, gripping the hilt tightly like he did now until their knuckles were whiter than their pale faces while life was slowly seeping out of them. Death. For some money.

 

Dieck didn't know better than to fight for both money and his life.

 

“Those who feel up for it may fight in the arena to expand our funds,” Roy had told them, “but only if you are hundred percent sure you want to, and there is nothing else to do on the battlefield.” So perhaps there were still some enemies on the battlefield, but it was nothing the others couldn't handle. Besides, they were way too weak for Dieck’s tastes, and he had been yearning to fight in an arena again, a one-on-one battle until death. A real battle, where he felt alive again despite death being closer than ever.

 

Loud cheering of the crowd snapped him out of his thoughts and he watched his opponent step in the arena. A slim mage, carrying a thunder tome, looking around unsurely. He couldn't be older than seventeen, and Dieck knew he shouldn't, but he felt bad for the poor kid.

 

But this was the arena. If the kid wanted to get out he'd either have to yield or kill him.

 

Dieck threw the sword in the air with his left hand, caught it with his right, and smirked. A mage. Considering the match-up, the fight would probably be over very soon. If lady luck was on his side, the kid would slip up due to nervousness and Dieck would come out unscathed. If lady luck favored the mage, he would probably hit Dieck very hard with that dangerous thunder tome, and it would be over for him.

 

He had won over fifty fights already and lost not a single one, why bother worrying now?

 

The mage stepped forward, opening his tome and getting in a battle stance, and Dieck stepped forward as well, sword firmly in his hand and trademark grin on his face.

 

“If you decide to enter the arena, and things are not turning out to be in your favor, then yield. Please,” was the plea Roy had added, when he had seen a few of his employed mercenaries bump each other's shoulders and chatter about how they'd been waiting for an opportunity like this, “do not wage your lives. Every single one of your lives’ is worth more than that handful of gold.”

 

Whoever’s side lady luck would pick, Dieck was sure: he wouldn't yield.


End file.
